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When I first met former President Jimmy Carter, I had a lot to learn.
It was the late Nineteen Nineties, and I used to be an aspiring journalist covering a trip Carter had taken to Colorado to assist 100 at-risk young people experience the transformative power of the outdoors.
For a latest reporter, interviewing the former president of the United States is the opportunity of a lifetime. Yet I went into it embarrassingly unprepared and with the attitude that the Nobel Prize winner was lucky to have met me, a 26-year-old. I used to be as naive as I used to be confident, which is an unpleasant combination.
Fortunately, since he was a former business owner, naval officer, and leader of the free world, Carter had loads of experience with people like me.
Instead of taking a “stupid questions – stupid answers” approach during our interview, he adopted an attitude of respect and mentorship. He didn’t treat me like the person I used to be at that moment, he treated me like the person he thought I could turn out to be one day.
At one point in our conversation, I bluntly asked, “How can we get people to stop targeting each other?”
While the query was well-intentioned and addressed to the global community, in the context of a story about at-risk youth, my query could easily have been perceived as a callous, simplistic insult to the 100 guests.
But Carter wasn’t offended. Instead, he took the opportunity to affirm my potential, explaining how for some people, a lack of belief in their very own potential may cause them, including the young people he was meant to encourage, to make unsafe decisions.
“This is something that a person like you or me cannot even imagine, because we know what our limitations are, but we also know what our potential is and we have ambitions for our potential to be realized in some way,” he explained kindly. . “We believe that when we make a decision, it will make a difference. They don’t have it, so we try to help them take it.”
And that is the way it was throughout the interview. The former president even answered my most uninformed and uninspired questions as if they were being asked by the most insightful and influential reporter in the world. He treated me like I used to be sitting in the front row of the White House briefing room. He saw the best version of me and that was the person he directed his answers to.
I left this room on a raised platform.
That was over 20 years ago, and since then I have had the opportunity to satisfy and work with tons of of recent employees in entrepreneurial ventures around the world. Most of them were humble, determined and talented beyond their years, but sometimes I find myself staring at a 26-year-old version of myself – someone with more annoyances than experience.
And while it’s tempting to fireside a latest team member for his or her unfounded bravado or off-putting apathy, I all the time take a moment to recollect how President Carter treated me and try to point out my latest colleagues a version of myself they’ve never met before.
This approach doesn’t all the time work, but when it does, the ventures I participate in are more successful and I’m surrounded by kind, supportive, and insightful people.
I recently received a thanks letter from a former colleague that read: “Even though it gave the look of I would not last greater than a few weeks, you didn’t hand over. You believed in me, challenged me, and taught me every thing I know. You made me smarter, pushed me to be a higher person and gave me opportunities… You are the most influential mentor I have ever had.
I had the opportunity to convey a similar message of gratitude to the former president. Six years after our first conversation, he gave me one other opportunity to satisfy him – and I didn’t waste it. I walked into that room prepared, respectful, and a higher version of myself – I walked into that room closer to the person he had introduced me to years earlier, and I took the opportunity to thank him for the gift of that introduction.
As Jimmy Carter’s life and death proceed to make headlines this week, I’m reminded of the meaningful gift he once gave me. I’m joyful to share it with you and hope it would assist you improve your management style and overall quality of life, similar to it did for me.